1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing out image data and text data, and more particularly to a system and a method for printing out image data and text data by connecting a mobile device, which can capture an image and show the captured image, to a printing-out device such as a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, thanks to the development of communication technologies, mobile devices having a variety of functions have come onto the market, and a representative example thereof includes a mobile device having an image capture function.
Such a mobile device provides a function of transmitting a captured image to a printing-out device such as a printer through a variety of transmission media so as to print out the captured image. At this time, the mobile device and the printing-out device can communicate with each other by using a protocol promised therebetween.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart exemplifying a conventional procedure of printing out image data. In the figure, a mobile phone 110 and a printer 120 are exemplified as the mobile device and the printing-out device, respectively, for the purpose of simplification of explanation.
First, when a user connects the mobile phone 110 to the printer 120 by using a transmission medium such as a USB cable, a printer identification step is carried out between the mobile phone 110 and the printer 120 (S130). Since various devices can be connected to the mobile phone 110, the printer identification step of allowing the mobile phone 110 to identify the connected printer 120 should be performed.
When the connected printer 120 is identified, a step of allowing the mobile phone 110 to extract printer information is performed (S140). At this time, the printer information can include a printer maker, a serial number specific to the printer, etc.
After the mobile phone 110 checks the printer information, a step of selecting printing-out services to be provided from the printer 120 is performed (S150). At this time, the printing-out services to be selected can include formats of image data, color formats such as a full color format or a black and white format, maximum data sizes of printable image data, etc. When the mobile phone 110 selects the printing-out services, a printing-out job is performed (S160). For example, when the printer 120 requests the mobile phone 110 for information on the image data file to be printed out, the mobile phone 110 transmits information such as file name, file size, file format, etc. to the printer 120. Thereafter, the printer 120 requests the relevant image data file, and the mobile phone 110 transmits the requested image data file. As a result, the image data desired by the user is printed out. At this time, when the printing-out job is performed normally, a message indicating that the printing-out job is completed normally, such as “Job End”, can be displayed in the display screen of the mobile phone 110. On the other hand, when the printing-out job is not performed normally, relevant error messages can be displayed.
In the past, there was provided such a technique of connecting the mobile device such as the mobile phone 110 and the printing-out device such as the printer 120 directly to each other, thereby printing out the image data. However, a technique of simultaneously printing out text data and image data has not been provided. For example, when a user conventionally takes a photograph of a person by using a mobile phone fitted with a camera, it is not possible to allow the user to input the name of the photographed person directly to the taken photograph and to simultaneously print out the input text data and the taken image data.
Therefore, when it is considered that needs of users can be more diversified, methods of printing out image data along with text data input by a user or previously stored text data are required.